The present invention relates to safety devices for beds. The invention finds particular application in conjunction with bed side rails and will be described with particular reference thereto.
Heretofore, beds, such as hospital and invalid care beds, have been provided with side rails. To facilitate entry and egress by a patient, the side rails have commonly been configured to be lowered substantially to the height of the mattress or below. After the patient was in the bed, the side rails were raised and locked in the raised position. Various mounting assemblies have been provided to enable the guard rail to be raised and lowered.
Commonly, the bed side rails included a plurality of parallel cross members or rails which were interconnected between generally vertical end members. The end members were slidably received in tubular mounting brackets on the bed. Various techniques have been utilized to avoid interference between the tubular mounting brackets and the horizontal cross rails. In one prior art bed rail, the lower cross rails were bent upward to connect adjacent the top of the vertical side rails. The top connection provided a long, uninterrupted length for sliding receipt in the bracket. In another bed side rail, the vertical end members were generally U-shaped tubes. A first leg of each U-shaped end member was connected with the horizontal cross rails and a second leg was slidably received in the bracket. In this manner, the second leg provided a relatively long, uninterrupted sliding length.
One drawback of both of these prior art designs concerned patient safety. When the cross member bent upward toward the top of the vertical member, a pocket was defined. A patient's limb or hospital care equipment could become trapped in the pocket as the bed rail was lowered. The generally U-shaped end members of the other bed rail also formed a pocket in which a patient's limb or invalid care equipment could become caught as the rail was lowered.
Another drawback to the prior art designs resided in relatively high manufacturing cost. Bending either the cross rails or the end rails increased labor costs, hence, the cost of the end product.
In accordance with the present invention, a new and improved bed rail construction is provided.